Philips Hue Lighting Review — Good and Bad

Today, in this Philips Hue lighting review we’ll go over the good and the bad aspects you should know before buying it. At this point you’ve probably googled a lot about Philips Hue lighting, so let’s summarize.

What is Philips Hue lighting?

Philips Hue is a combination of crisp LED light and intuitive technology. This personal wireless lighting system allows you to choose between colors in the hue spectrum. Every time you get angry the lights will automatically turn red notifying everyone to stay away from you. Just kidding, Philips Hue is not that smart yet. But, you definitely can create the perfect ambiance in any of your room using a hue app. Just download the app to your smartphone or tablet and control the lights at your home from anywhere in the world.

The good about Philips Hue lighting:

Set your favorite color scheme: with Philips Hue you can set the perfect tone of light in accordance with your mood. From warm colors of a sunset to invigorating colors of the ocean — change the ambience and enhance a moment in just one tap.

Choose colors from millions of images: Philips Hue allows you to pick colors from any picture. Choose an image from an app or from your personal photo library. Your bulbs will instantly match the color, as you start sliding the color picker across the image.

Create, edit & share: set up your own ‘color scenes’ and share them with Hue community.

Different lights for different occasions: use ‘Light Recipes’ to create the ideal environment for your needs. For example, the ‘Reading Recipe’ will provide the perfect light for reading that will be bright enough to curl up with your favorite book. ‘Relax Recipe’ will turn on the soft, soothing glow, whereas the ‘Energize Recipe’ will immerse you in bright and vibrant light.

Security and safety: keep your home more secure with Philips Hue: turn on the lights in the evenings when you’re not home to make it look like you’re home.

Make pre-set schedules: set alarms and schedules, so your lights turn on automatically. There is even an option to set different schedules for each of your rooms.

Get notified by light: Philips Hue is more than just an automated home lighting system. You can use it as an alarm, a timer, or an alert. Set an alarm and wake up with the soft glow of sunrise, or set a timer for the lights to turn off in the kid’s bedroom before bedtime. Simple and smart.

Smart technology: use the IFTTT service (If This, Then That) to make the light blink every time you get an important email or someone tagged you on a photo on Facebook. You can even set it that every time your favorite football team starts playing, the lights in the room will switch to the colors of your team automatically. Now, that’s pretty badass unless your favorite team is Oakland Raiders.

The bad about Philips Hue lighting:

Price tag: the price is biting. Let’s put it straight, if all you’re looking for is a basic remote lighting system for illuminating the dark, then we wouldn’t recommend you Philips hue.

Odd pieces: you might wish there was a way to eliminate the Bridge. There isn’t. So, if you don’t feel like leaving it right next to your router, just hide the Bridge somewhere in your closet using an extra-long Ethernet cable.

Outdated firmware: there is a chance of getting the Bridge with outdated firmware. So you’ll need to cycle the power once or twice in order to get an accurate reading.

Inconvenient interface: the official Hue app has enough room to be improved. For example, in order to edit or create a new preset, you need to use an image from which you will use the color you want. Other than that, there is no other way to set a particular shade to a preset. Fortunately, there are lots of alternative hue apps that are just the improved versions of the official app.

Messy controls: with so many hue apps, it might be hard to keep track of all your light recipes. So, what if one day you get sick of a particular light recipe or a pre-set program? You’ll, most likely, have to look through several apps before you find the right one to shut it down.

Philips Hue White might lack color, but can be a nice alternative when combined with colorful lamp shades:

The bottom line:

Even though Philips Hue might be pricier than many other LED bulbs, but those “other LED bulbs” don’t offer nearly as many color options as the Hue bulbs. Plus, Philips Hue is IFTTT-compatible. If you enjoy Christmas lights, then you’ll definitely enjoy Philips Hue.

About The Author

Smart home enthusiast. Travel junkie. Baseball fan. When he’s not writing about smart home automation, Joseph enjoys playing with statistics in excel spreadsheets — boring for most, fun for him. Note: He did not write this bio.

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